Forgotten Horrors: The Strange, Stylish Horrors of Pre-Code Comics
- PS Artbooks
- Jul 11
- 5 min read
When comic fans talk about the golden age of horror, names like Tales from the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear are often the first to rise from the grave. EC Comics undeniably set a high standard for storytelling, but it was far from alone in plumbing the darkest corners of human imagination. A shadowy underworld of lesser-known publishers was busy churning out its own brand of nightmares—often with fewer restraints, wilder visuals, and cover art so outrageous it sometimes eclipsed what lay within.
These “forgotten horrors” didn’t always come from refined hands, but they offered raw, unfiltered fear: unhinged, surreal, and sometimes downright offensive by today’s standards. But therein lies the fascination—and the value—in preserving them. PS Artbooks has brought many of these spectral gems back to life, offering readers a curated descent into horror’s most chaotic crypts.
Ajax-Farrell Publications: Melting Faces and Mad Ghouls
Ajax-Farrell’s horror titles (Fantastic Fears, Strange Fantasy, Haunted Thrills) are packed with over-the-top terror and some of the most lurid covers in comic history.
Few pre-code covers capture pure dread like Fantastic Fears #5 from Ajax-Farrell. Three robed skeletons loom over a man as they nail shut his coffin, their faces locked in sinister glee while he struggles in panic. It’s a chilling reversal—the dead burying the living.
The artwork leans into classic horror visuals: bold shadows, lurid colours, and grotesque exaggeration. The scene suggests not just death, but an attempt to contain something evil—the man may be more than he seems. Dialogue balloons add urgency, warning of the “restless one” within.
The cover plays with moral horror: can evil truly be sealed away? Or is it always clawing to return? Ajax-Farrell’s artists knew how to make a single image feel like a full nightmare—and this one delivers.
These were stories where morality came with a grim price, and the art was happy to show exactly what that price looked like—down to the last drop of blood or twitching eyeball.
Star Publications: Psychedelia Meets the Macabre
No exploration of horror covers is complete without L.B. Cole, whose work at Star Publications (Spook, Terrifying Tales, Ghostly Weird Stories) blends design, colour theory, and absolute insanity.
The cover of Ghostly Weird Stories #122, illustrated by L.B. Cole, is a vivid, chaotic fusion of science fiction and horror. A decaying astronaut, visible through a cracked helmet, floats lifelessly against a fiery alien backdrop, his limbs dismembered, his body seemingly torn apart by some cosmic catastrophe. Another dark, drifting figure adds to the sense of massive destruction and doom.
The swirling yellow-orange background, fragmented terrain, and explosive colour palette suggest not just death, but annihilation on a vast, galactic scale. Above it all, the lurid subtitle—“Death Ship!!”—amplifies the urgency and horror, hinting at a doomed voyage and a tale of space-bound terror.
Cole’s bold lines and electric hues create a cover that’s both grotesque and hypnotic. It doesn’t whisper horror—it shouts it. This is pulp art at its most potent: eye-catching, unsettling, and promising a story where survival is uncertain and the cosmos is anything but kind.
Superior Publishers: Horror from the Frozen North
Based in Canada, Superior’s horror comics (Journey into Fear, Strange Mysteries) are rich in gruesome visuals and nihilistic endings. Their covers tend to be bold and minimalistic—but no less disturbing.
Superior Comics’ Journey into Fear #2 offers a textbook example of pre-code horror design: bold, lurid, and instantly dramatic. A monstrous green figure emerges from a graveyard, attacking a terrified man while a woman in a blood-red dress recoils in horror. Behind them, a tombstone looms, engraved with sensational phrases like “NIGHT SCREAMS!” and “ONE OF US MUST DIE!”
The composition is pure pulp: the giant “FEAR” title dominates the top half, while color contrasts—the ghastly monster in green versus the woman’s red dress—draw the eye to the violence below. Every element screams danger, from the monster’s expressionless menace to the woman’s wide-eyed terror.
The inferred story is classic pre-code moral horror: a supernatural debt, perhaps made with the devil, now coming due. The graveyard setting, the physical struggle, and the inscription “DEBT TO THE DEVIL” suggest a tale of moral compromise turned fatal. Whether the couple escapes or not is left unresolved—but the sense of doom is inescapable..
Ace Magazines: Classy but Cruel
While better known for its romance and sci-fi lines, Ace’s horror books (Baffling Mysteries, Web of Mystery) delivered stylish, spine-chilling cover art with a slightly more polished aesthetic.
Ace Magazines’ Baffling Mysteries #7 delivers classic pre-code horror spectacle. A towering green sea monster—with scaled skin and a long, dripping beard—emerges from the surf, clutching a woman in a torn red swimsuit. The scene is set on a beach, but there’s no safety in daylight; the creature’s blank stare and massive form dominate the image with quiet menace.
The title story, “Terror Beneath the Tides,” suggests a lurking, ancient evil from the ocean depths. Bold cover text—“WEIRD! FANTASTIC! ASTOUNDING!”—sets the tone for the pulp thrills within.
Rendered in classic Golden Age style, the cover is a study in contrast: beauty and beast, sea and shore, sunlight and terror. Like much of Ace’s horror line, this issue promises monsters, mystery, and moral peril—all wrapped in vivid color and unforgettable imagery.
Quality Comics – Grim Justice in Web of Evil
Quality Comics specialised in polished storytelling across genres, but with Web of Evil, they briefly stepped into horror—bringing a sharper, more moralistic edge to the pre-code landscape.
The cover of Web of Evil #5 (July 1953) captures the grim theatrics of pre-code horror at full voltage. A man, bound in a white shirt and strapped into an electric chair, stares out with a wide, unnatural grin—his yellow-tinged face twisted in terror. Sparks shoot from the electrodes on his arms, while two dark-uniformed guards stand at the controls, ready to throw the switch.
The background blazes in a harsh orange glow, intensifying the feeling of heat, panic, and claustrophobia. Above him, a floating “Ha Ha Ha” adds a sinister edge, mocking the condemned man’s fate. The story title, “The Man Who Died Twice,” hints at a grim supernatural twist beyond the execution itself.
Quality Comics leaned into moral horror and retribution, and this cover exemplifies that—with bold colours, cruel irony, and a spectacle of fear that demands attention. It remains one of the more disturbing—and memorable—entries in the publisher’s short-lived horror run.
Art Over Substance—or Both?
For many of these titles, the cover was the main attraction. It didn’t matter if the interior art was inconsistent or the stories derivative—those covers promised something visceral, often delivering a blend of horror, sex, and weirdness that bypassed logic and went straight for the gut.
But that’s exactly why these comics matter. They’re cultural artifacts of postwar anxiety, Cold War paranoia, and suppressed desires—all filtered through outrageous pulp aesthetics.
Revived by PS Artbooks: Preserving the Madness
Thankfully, PS Artbooks has resurrected many of these long-forgotten series in beautifully restored editions. Series like Haunted Thrills, Strange Fantasy, Spook, and Terrifying Tales are once again available in high-quality slipcased volumes that present every page, cover to cover, in its full original colour.
For collectors, historians, and lovers of the bizarre, these books offer more than nostalgia—they are portals into a time when horror was weirder, bolder, and defiantly alive.
Want to see these nightmares for yourself? Browse PS Artbooks’ collection of restored pre-code horror comics—where no cover is too gruesome, and no tale too strange.
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